Artel LLC

Artel LLC, a Herndon, Virginia–based veteran-owned large business, delivers satellite communications, PLEO (Proliferated Low Earth Orbit) services, commercial telecommunications circuits, and space segment bandwidth capacity to defense and civilian federal agencies as a prime contractor, with no subcontractor footprint in recent awards. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cydecor Holding Company, Inc., a veteran-owned service-disabled veteran-owned business parent entity, and competes in full-and-open procurements without set-asides.

Artel's customer concentration is extreme and defense-focused. The Defense Information Systems Agency dominates both volume (492 awards) and dollar value ($15.32 billion combined potential value), accounting for 54% of all awards in the portfolio. The top five customers by potential-value ranking account for 34% of combined potential value: DISA, the Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command ($5.28 billion on four awards), GSA Federal Acquisition Service ($4.82 billion on 44 awards), Army Central Command ($615.1 million on 12 awards), and Air Force Air Combat Command ($388.8 million on nine awards). This concentration reflects Artel's core positioning as a satellite and telecommunications infrastructure vendor for military communications modernization—the gap between award count and dollar value ranking shows that while FEMA and other civilian agencies place many small orders, Navy and commercial space-segment work carries far larger individual ceilings.

Artel holds substantial positions on two major government-wide vehicles. The $13 billion DISA Proliferated Low Earth Orbit Satellite-Based Services multiple-award IDIQ (with options extending to July 2033 after a July 2025 refresh) anchors the portfolio—330 task orders carry $1.42 billion combined potential value under this vehicle, and Artel has received delivery orders from DISA itself, Air Force, Army Forces Command, Army Cyber Command, and other DoD components for PLEO-based packaged services (CERTUS LAND 100, Land Mobile Essential configurations, minimum guarantee funding). The GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) functions as a second major platform: 133 task orders under schedule GS35F5151H carry $1.71 billion combined potential value, supporting Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Combat Command, and Army Central Command for space segment Ku-band and commercial telecommunications circuits. Smaller vehicles include DISA Global Network Services IDIQs (44 and 37 task orders) for commercial circuit leases in the UK, Southwest Asia, and Europe; and the newly awarded Missile Defense Agency Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) $151 billion multiple-award IDIQ (December 2025, 10-year period through 2035) where Artel received a five-hundred-dollar initial delivery order establishing baseline task-order authority.

Recent work exemplifies Artel's concrete capabilities. A $1.077 million Air Force delivery order (January 2026) procures operational packaged PLEO data transport services with global coverage and multi-terminal compatibility; a $75.5 million Space and Missile Systems Center delivery order (February 2023, operating through February 2028) covers 216 MHz Ku-band space segment capacity supporting Operation Epic Fury; a $26.4 million Army Central Command delivery order (February 2023) funds 144 MHz space-segment Ku-band bandwidth; a $172.3 million Air Combat Command delivery order (August 2021, running through August 2026) provides 250 MHz Ku-band space segment; and a $1.177 million Mine Safety and Health Administration delivery order (April 2025) supplies VSAT satellite services for mine emergency operations under GSA MAS. Outside the satellite portfolio, Artel delivered a $360 thousand delivery order to the State Department's Bureau of Information Resource Management (July 2023) for internet service at the U.S. Embassy in Juba, South Sudan, under a single-award $1.286 million IDC. International telecommunications circuits form a secondary revenue stream: DISA, Air Force, Air Mobility Command, and Army Cyber Command have issued purchase orders totaling hundreds of thousands each for dedicated commercial leases (10.709 GB and 100 MB circuits) connecting RAF bases (Fairford, Molesworth, Croughton, Alconbury, Pickering) with Aylesbury, Bordon, and Northwood in the UK and between UK and continental Europe; one recent award (December 2025, $165 thousand) funds a 50 MB commercial lease intra-Southwest Asia circuit with performance in Israel and completion in 2030.

Activity has been uneven but substantial in dollar volume. Awards per year show four in 2022, twelve in 2023, nine in 2024, eight in 2025, and one so far in 2026 (the data capture is dated mid-July 2026). The recompete cliff is modest: twenty awards worth $411.1 million combined potential value reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing 5% recompete exposure.

SCI-reported invoicing on federal service contracts above the $150 thousand threshold ran $42.2 million in FY2022, $45 million in FY2023, and $61.4 million in FY2024—a 45% increase over the three-year window. The SCI dataset shows minimal FTE workforce scale (8.3 FTEs in FY2022, zero reported in FY2023, 8.7 FTEs in FY2024 across prime and sub records), reflecting Artel's operating model as a capacity-brokering vendor rather than a labor-intensive professional-services firm. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, sub-contractor hours represent zero percent of total hours, and only eleven total named subcontractors appear in the SCI data, indicating Artel builds and operates its own delivery infrastructure for satellite and telecommunications provisioning rather than relying on subcontract supply chains. Artel's GSA MAS labor portfolio spans 82 unique categories at hourly rates from $44.07 (junior telecom engineer) through $324.59 (senior subject matter expert), with education credentials from bachelor's through master's degrees and no security clearance requirements, supporting both government-site and contractor-site placements in systems analysis, database administration, information engineering, and principal analyst roles. This labor posture suggests some professional-services augmentation around core satellite and telecom delivery but not as primary revenue.

In its subcontractor capacity, Artel has minimal recent engagement: two sub-awards appear in the source data—a $5+ million non-personal IT services sub to Peraton Inc. (April 2025, regional cyber center cyber security services) and a WSOTS II engineering services sub to L3Harris Technologies (May 2024). These are exceptions; Artel operates as a prime on 100% of its award count by design.

The portfolio is narrowly specialized in satellite communications, PLEO services, and commercial telecommunications infrastructure for defense (DISA dominance) and space operations (Space and Missile Systems Center), with thin civilian sidelines (State Department, FEMA, Interior, MSHA). The lack of set-aside participation, full-and-open competitive posture, and concentration of work under two major government-wide vehicles (DISA PLEO IDIQ and GSA MAS) positions Artel as a niche prime contractor whose competitive advantage derives from satellite-industry relationships, global circuit provisioning capability, and established footprint on high-value defense modernization vehicles rather than from cost leadership or agility in small-order execution.

Professional information technology and telecommunications technical services.